Blair Carr

Background

Blair Carr was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, United States to the family of a police officer.

Education

Blair Carr attended colleges in Mississippi and Tennessee.

Career

Blair Carr drew on his varied professional experiences to develop the story and characters of his first novel, A Case of Black or White. Carr, a clinical counselor with almost two decades’ experience, had also been a policeman - the third generation of his family to serve in that profession. As a journalist and photographer in the United States Army and in civilian life, he had come face to face with hard realities.

In A Case of Black or White, the longtime Memphis resident went back into the relatively recent past for his setting: Memphis, 1968. Carr depicts the city as being torn by racial tension and a garbage strike; meanwhile, the body of a white woman who has been violently killed surfaces in a local park, and the suspects who are arrested for the crime are black. Harry Lake, a Memphis police detective, is assigned to the case, as is Britney Courtland, a deputy county coroner. The two join forces to solve a crime that has unsettling sociological implications for the city of Memphis. As they solve it, history intervenes to make their jobs harder: it is April 4, 1968, the day of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. As the killer stalks Lake and Courtland, there are no Memphis police free from riot duty to help them.

This psychological thriller was praised highly by reviewer Betty Davis in the online Paper Jam Bookstore: “Women readers will adore Britney Courtland. She’s a strong-willed character who has to make some hard choices.” The reviewer continued, “Above all, even with the intricate plot and sinister killer behind it, one is captivated by the evocative setting and typically Southern character vignettes.”

Achievements

• Carr's first novel was praised highly by critics.

Works

More photos

• book

  • A Case of Black or White 1996

References

• Contemporary Authors, Vol. 166 This volume of Contemporary Authors contains biographical information on approximately 300 modern writers.
  1998